Chapter 179 - Hope for Aid
The announcement went over about as well as predicted. Worry and panic bubbled up but nothing crazy happened, which was good. I wouldn't go far as to say people took it in stride, but it wasn't as big a blow as some might've thought. Jonathan was right in that regard.
It was sad to say that people were used to this, but most in our city spent nearly a year surviving on their own in the wilderness. They had a toughness to them that kept them alive, which meant they didn't immediately freak out when hearing of a threat. Add surviving the tutorial to that, and we were a resilient bunch.
One thing we didn't think of in our meeting, and we really should've, was one of the first questions raised. I tried to keep everyone's names straight, as that was good practice, but it was getting harder as more people showed up.
Knowing the names of the 200 who joined us while traveling was easier, as there were fewer people and they joined spaced out.
But now, with more than four times as many people, that practice was falling behind and I wasn't able to know the person who asked the question.
"Who will fight the waves if we all leave?"
It was a good question and needed an answer, one I wished we had discussed before but I improvised one as best I could.
It wasn't like I was uninformed about the power of the waves or the manpower it took to fight it, but a little more thought would have been nice to put behind something so important.
All told, I answered like I had it prepared, "Considering the strength of the waves and the castle being mostly built, not many will need to stay behind. We've already spoken about who that will be so you don't need to worry about leaving our home defenseless. We built them strong for this reason, now all we have to do is stand atop them."
Saying that we needed to face the bigger threat wasn't necessary, everyone knew which was more important.
It was nice to have this occur after the castle was mostly built, as we wouldn't have to leave as many people behind. The stone was tall and thick, even the nonfighters would be able to stand atop it and repel the waves easily enough.
Not that I would plan for that. Just like I wasn't going to force people to go fight Demons unwillingly, I wasn't going to force people to fight here unwillingly.